“A Hunger Artist” and the Contemporary Tragedy of Working for the Knife

“A Hunger Artist” is a story that depicts an artist feeling unfulfilled in his craft when given top-tier opportunities and support, but later found that once he breaks free and is able to express his art the way he wants to, no one is there to see, and those who are never even cared. Themes like these are all too real for some artists in real life, their original voices and ideas never once being heard nor cared about, before later fading into obscurity. Therefore, it is fairly common to see the ideas expressed within the short story within many forms of contemporary media. In order to analyze the relationship between Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist” as well as contemporary songs like “Cabinet Man” and “Working for the Knife,” one must consider how the artists equate their art with their worth, feel empty if their art is not valued, and attempt to escape the quotidian confines of their respective societies.

Specifically, these ideas are found in the two listed songs from independent artists that tell stories and ideas that mirror the plight of the Hunger Artist. Firstly, Lemon Demon’s “Cabinet Man” is a tale from the perspective of a sentient arcade cabinet as he recounts the years where he was once in his prime, and children of all ages went to the arcade just to play his game. Yet, as time goes on, he slowly but surely fades into obscurity as less and less children come to the arcade because “there’s a tiny little box they make in Japan/ and pretty soon it’s gonna fit in your hand.” (Cicierega 31-32) Summarizing the mortality and finite nature of all art, once a craze, then forgotten and left to figuratively and, in this case, literally collect dust. The story of the song as it’s told can be easily compared to “A Hunger Artist,” both stories even taking on a similar narrative structure. The artist, or in this case the Hunger Artist or The Cabinet Man, exist to create within a defined space, and revel in it. They feed off of the energy and attention given to them by their respective audiences, but slowly begin to acknowledge the creeping inevitability of obscurity. The stories begin to deviate at that point, once the Hunger Artist begins to fade, he does everything in his power to stay relevant, even agreeing to worse treatment and circumstances as long as he can continue performing. The story of The Cabinet man, however, makes many strange turns over the duration of the song, to the point where his sentience seems to be more than just a metaphor. But truly, the comparisons between the two to represent the first arc of “A Hunger Artist” is truly uncanny.

Another relevant example is Mitski’s “Working for the Knife,” a song that takes these themes more literally. The speaker, more or less Mitski herself, sings about how she yearns desperately to create art freely and have her life move in any direction besides the loop she’s living in, but ultimately succumbs to the idea that it’s not worth it because no one would ever be there to listen to her. In one of the most heartbreaking stanzas of the song and frankly, the whole album respectively: “I cry at the start of every movie/ I guess 'cause I wish I was making things too/ But I'm working for the knife/ I used to think I would tell stories/ But nobody cared for the stories I had-” (Mitski 1-5) This storyline seems to reflect the downfall of the hunger artist as he came to accept his terrible conditions as a circus side attraction and succumbs to his own dread of obscurity. When Mitski speaks of her art being a lost cause and how she’s “working for the knife,” it’s supposed to mean that she’ll never stop having to work and force herself to live a life she ultimately hates, which was the exact same fate of the hunger artist, as said in the latter half of the story: “Who knew where they would tuck him away if he tried to make them aware of his existence, and therefore also of the fact that, strictly speaking, he has nothing more than an obstacle on the way to the animal sheds.” (Kafka 673) It’s this shared pain between the two speakers that shows how both trying relentlessly to create, and not creating at all, are equally forsaken existences.

This connection is no accident either, since Kafka’s own struggles as an artist seem to relate heavily to that of any independent and struggling creatives, even to this day. He is remembered as a truly miserable man. His strife is warranted of course, but in an artistic sense, his legacy is remembered of how he utilized the tragedy in his writing and his general demeanor. In Understanding Franz Kafka by Allen Thiher, he goes on to state: “one may surmise that he may have been a hypochondriac or that he suffered some serious problems caused by a neurological disorder, or that he had bouts of depression, or that he was suffering from a combination of all of these.” (Thiher 23) He has been remembered throughout the years for his misery both on the page and off, so it’s truly no wonder how he was able to capture it so well in a story that almost reflects his own. However, he had lived over a hundred years ago, why are his struggles so relatable now, and how exactly are such themes reflected in the two songs’ narratives?

After analysis, a question arises as to why does the urge to create art and fulfill one’s purpose inspire such pain in each story? In “Cabinet Man,” a very poignant stanza states, “Players soon appeared and I quickly was revered/ This must be what love would have felt like.” (Cicierega 15-16) His instant equation of him being given attention for the art he creates, or rather, being played, with the concept of him being loved by said people is very telling of the fragile mindset someone has when their thinking descends in such a way. It is his only avenue to the outside world, since he cannot even communicate in a human way, the way people play his game and give him that attention is the closest thing he can get to love, much like the hunger artist’s urge to be noticed. It can be argued that even though he is human and is capable of communication, the hunger artist is so reclusive and held down in a literal and figurative cage, that his only avenue to the outside world is his art. This is exemplified in the quote from the short story, “He was prepared to joke with them, to tell them stories from his journeyman years, and in turn to listen to their stories, anything just so as to keep them awake, to be able to show them again and again that he had nothing edible in the cage, and that he starved in a way that not one of them could.” (Kafka 670) His deep love and passion for his art is what led to his downfall. First, by isolating himself to the point of borderline inhumanity, and then by tying his identity so heavily to his performance that any degradation to his social standing would mean a spiral downwards into a breakdown- which did eventually happen. The descent and later low point itself can be very well summarized by the quote from “Working for the Knife”, Where the last stanza goes as follows, “I always thought the choice was mine/ And I was right, but I just chose wrong/ I start the day lying and end with the truth/ That I'm dying for the knife” (Mitski, 15-18) This just goes to show how art and the frantic need for recognition can be a prison. The Cabinet Man was loved at a point, but had no choice but to stand by and watch his popularity, relevance, and the love others gave to him, all vanish. Mitski dreams of art and expressing herself, but has gotten too used to the cycle of disappointment and self doubt, that she convinces herself that she took the wrong path and ended up in a life where she dreaded her job and will feel this way until her inevitable death. Finally, the Hunger artist has both perspectives. He has the same platform of love and respect that the cabinet man does, and just like him, sees it slowly fading. He makes the choice to switch to a different circus, but finds his day-to-day lifestyle to be absolutely miserable, even if he has more creative freedom. In the end he died for his art, and could’ve lived longer and more comfortably under the constraints of his old boss, but much like Mitski, “the choice was mine, but I just chose wrong.”

“A Hunger Artist” is a story that defines the tragedy of the starving artist, both literally and figuratively. The topic is important mainly because the struggle that certain artists go through when fully devoting themselves to their craft can turn into something incredibly damaging. Audiences see the hunger artist attempt to live a life authentic to himself and the art he wants to create, feeling wildly unfulfilled, but when he finds a less controlled space in which he can express himself- no one is there to see him or even care. It is this lack of exposure and recognition that causes him to lose all hope, as well as any opinion of himself. He ends up wasting away and dying in his cage, with not a soul there to even see him go. In the age of independent music becoming chart toppers, or small comics someone drew in their sketchbook going viral, it’s easy for someone to feel as if their only avenue to a fulfilling life is by attention. The small town indie artist who gets seen and becomes a multi-millionaire just for making the art they’ve always loved is a story that’s pedaled to all artists. That the dream-life of doing what one loves for comfortable profit is right there if they’re worthy enough! Yet, the more exposed one becomes, the more that dream becomes a fallacy. Artists are compelled to work, and work, and work, praying for the day they are able to “make it.” Soon that hobby becomes a career path, and that career path becomes a daily source for stress, and that stress becomes a groundhog’s day nightmare for forcing oneself to be “out there”, to constantly keep a presence publicly so that one day, one might be given the chance they deserve. It’s a mindset that fully equates one’s worth as a person to the content one may create. It’s a mindset that is shared and just accepted as a part of life by millions of creators around the world, and it's the mindset that led to the downfall of the speakers in each discussed narrative. Creativity itself is not a prison, but to tie one’s creative output to one’s very worth as a living person? This will cause one to find themself in no different a position than wasting away in a cage as a sideshow, wondering where they may have gone wrong.